Forward Today: Are You Ready for Lent?

In this week’s edition of our weekly newsletter, Scott writes about preparing for Lent, writing that it’s simply “too important to approach haphazardly.”

Dear friends in Christ,

Back in the day, there was a miniature season in the church to get us ready for Lent. We had three Sundays’ notice that a penitential season was on the way. They were kind of like those rumble strips on a highway, to warn us that something is coming. These days, Ash Wednesday pops up, and if we’re not careful it can catch us unsuspecting.

The point of Lent is to invite us to turn back to God, to restore our relationship with God and our neighbors. Have we ever needed this more than we do right now? Lent is too important to approach haphazardly. I hope you will join me in thinking carefully and praying diligently about the best way to use this gift of the Lenten season.

We at Forward Movement offer several ways to approach Lent, and you might try one or all of them.

Each year we publish a new book of Lenten meditations for the season. This year’s is Ashes and the Phoenix, and it is enhanced with art and poetry, though daily meditations are the meat of it. You can buy the paper book from your favorite bookseller or from Forward Movement. There’s also an ebook.

For something a little lighter, you can draw inspiration from the lives of saints as you play Lent Madness starting March 2.

This year we are encouraging you to pray for refugees and engage in the Christian practice of hospitality through A Season of Prayer: 40 Days in the Desert. This offers daily prayers or scripture readings, along with resources to learn more about refugee and migrant ministries.

Of course, you don’t have to use Forward Movement resources. You can just re-engage with prayer, or pick up a Bible and read it, or find a way to do ministry in the world. But whatever you do, don’t let Lent pass you by. God gives us this gift through the church, and we should savor it. How will you return to God this Lent?

A ministry of The Episcopal Church, Forward Movement has been inspiring disciples and empowering evangelists around the globe since 1935 through
our offerings that encourage spiritual growth in individuals and congregations.